s offering of the first-fruits, it may well be supposed was not
peculiar to the Jews either at the time of, or after, its establishment
by their legislator; neither the feast in consequence of it. Many other
nations, either in imitation of the Jews, or rather by tradition from
their several patriarchs, observed the rite of offering their Primitiae,
and of solemnizing a festival after it, in religious acknowledgment
for the blessing of harvest, though that acknowledgment was ignorantly
misapplied in being directed to a secondary, not the primary, fountain
of this benefit,--namely to Apollo, or the Sun.

For Callimachus affirms that these Primitiae were sent by the people
of every nation to the temple of Apollo in Delos, the most distant that
enjoyed the happiness of corn and harvest, even by the Hyperboreans
in particular,--Hymn to Apol., "Bring the sacred sheafs and the mystic
offerings."

Herodotus also mentions this annual custom of the Hyperboreans,
remarking that those of Delos talk of "Holy things tied up in sheaf of
wheat conveyed from the Hyperboreans." And the Jews, by the command of
their law, offered also a sheaf: "And shall reap the harvest thereof,
then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of the harvest unto the
priest."

This is not introduced in proof of any feast observed by the people who
had harvests, but to show the universality of the custom of offering the
Primitiae, which preceded this feast. But yet it maybe looked upon as
equivalent to a proof; for as the offering and the feast appear to have
been always and intimately connected in countries affording records, so
it is more than probable they were connected too in countries which
had none, or none that ever survived to our times. An entertainment
and gayety were still the concomitants of these rites, which with the
vulgar, one may pretty truly suppose, were esteemed the most acceptable
and material part of them, and a great reason of their having subsisted
through such a length of ages, when both the populace and many of
the learned too have lost sight of the object to which they had been
originally directed. This, among many other ceremonies of the heathen
worship, became disused in some places and retained in others, but still
continued declining after the promulgation of the Gospel. In short,
there seems great reason to conclude that this feast, which was once
sacred to Apollo, was constantly maintained, when a far less valuable
circu